With the advent of high-speed data communications comes ever-increasing communication capabilities and reduced costs. Due to the reduction in cost, more and more high-speed communication systems are being installed at subscriber premises. These high-speed communication systems include high-speed modems which utilize the public switched telephone network (PTSN), cable modem systems, digital subscriber line (DSL), T1 line, ISDN and many others. Some of the systems share the PSTN with other voice communications. In these instances, at each end of a given communication path, components are necessary to separate the voice communications from the data communications being sent over a single PSTN line.
Some examples of such an arrangement are disclosed by related U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,857 and 5,781,617. These patents show a communications system having a number of subscribers coupled to a central office using twisted pair subscriber lines. The central office has a telephone switch that provides telephone services to the subscribers, and a communications server having a plurality of DSL modems to provide data service to the subscribers. At both the central office and the subscriber premises, a splitter is required to separate the voice communication from the data communication. The splitter serves to couple voice signals to a twisted pair phone line and data signals to a twisted pair data line. A DSL modem is connected to the twisted pair data line at each end and a telephone is connected to the twisted pair phone line at the subscriber premises.
A problem exists with such systems in that the separate splitter is required at the subscriber premises for separating the data and voice signals. Additionally, is often desirable to incorporate such data and voice services into a structured wiring system. Such structured wiring systems are becoming more prevalent in homes and include a central service provider interface which receives services from multiple providers and a structured wiring system for distributing these multiple services to various locations/rooms within the home. For example, the central service provider interface may be configured to receive cable television services and integrated data services over RG6 coaxial cable, telephone, fax, or data services over PSTN twisted pair cable, television, audio, and integrated data services from direct satellite links over coaxial cable from a satellite dish receiver. These are just some examples of the services which are typically received into the central service provider interface. The central service provider interface may also serve as a distribution point for a local area network, wide area network, internally sourced video or audio signals. A security system for the premises including multiple sensors and electronics for signaling a breach of security over the PSTN may also be incorporated into the central service provider interface. Such a security system requires access to the telephone lines or voice portion of the PSTN for contacting the service provider when security has been breached. A further problem exists in that when the security system accesses the telephone line as necessary for signaling a breach, it may undesirably interfere with data communications being provided over the same PSTN line. Since many services and connections are provided at the central service provider interface, it is desirable to minimize the number of components necessary for such interface.